Montessori-Based Dementia Activities in Long-Term Care

Use of Montessori-Based Activities by Visitors of Nursing Home Residents with Dementia

“…and emotions (affect), using an observational data gathering system we have employed in a number of other studies (e.g., Orsulic-Jeras, Orsulic-Jeras, Schneider, Camp, Nicholson, & Helbig, 2000), described in the Residents' Outcome Measures section. Montessori-based activities were not used with family members during this initial phase of the project.…”

“…Montessori-based activities have proven successful in increasing positive engagement for persons with dementia in prior studies involving individual, intergenerational, and small-group activities (Camp et al, 1997;Camp & Mattern, 1999;Orsulic-Jeras, Judge, & Camp, 2000;Vance, Camp, Kabacoff, & Greenwalt, 1996). Nursing aides, volunteers, rehabilitation staff and activities personnel have been trained to use the Montessori-based activities with residents with dementia Orsulic-Jeras, Schneider, Camp, Nicholson, & Helbig, 2000;Schneider, Diggs, Orsulic, & Camp, 1999). During these projects, many family visitors witnessed the positive benefits experienced by residents when staff and volunteers implemented Montessori-based programming.…”

Resident-Assisted Montessori Programming (RAMP): Training Persons With Dementia to Serve as Group Activity Leaders

“…Much of our work has focused on creating Montessori-based group activities that can be led by professionals (e.g., rehabilitation, activities, and nursing staff). The program to be described, which is referred to as Resident-Assisted Montessori Programming, or RAMP, focuses on training persons with early-stage dementia to act as group leaders for Montessori-based small group activities that have previously demonstrated effectiveness in increasing levels of constructive engagement in persons with moderate to advanced dementia (Judge et al, 2000;Orsulic-Jeras, Judge et al, 2000;Orsulic-Jeras, Schneider et al, 2000;Orsulic-Jeras et al, 2001). This report involves a small-n demonstration project focused on preliminary results involving a single activity in an ongoing study.…”

Effectiveness of DementiAbility Methods: The Montessori Way on agitation in long‐term care home residents with dementia in Hong Kong

“…In addition to a range of nonpharmacological interventions, an emerging line of research focuses on the use of Montessori‐based activities to promote prosocial behaviors and engagement in elderly with dementia given its high adaptability to dementia care settings and shared principles of implementation with the best practices in dementia care . Montessori‐based activities adopt the rehabilitation principles, including task breakdown, guided repetition, and gradation of tasks with progressive difficulty such as moving from simple to complex as well as from concrete to abstract . With quality of study ranging from strong to weak, Montessori‐based activities have been reported in researches to improve constructive engagement, positive affect, eating behaviors, and cognition in elderly with dementia.…”

“…19,20 Montessori-based activities adopt the rehabilitation principles, including task breakdown, guided repetition, and gradation of tasks with progressive difficulty such as moving from simple to complex as well as from concrete to abstract. 21 With quality of study ranging from strong to weak, Montessori-based activities have been reported in researches to improve constructive engagement, positive affect, eating behaviors, and cognition 22 in elderly with dementia. However, little research has examined the effect of Montessori-based activities on reducing agitation in long-term care home residents with dementia.…”